Managing Chronic Stress is the First Step To health & Balanced Hormones
Make sure to download the free Protocol for Chronic Stress at the bottom of the page!
In this modern life we are constantly being bombarded with stressors from every angle.
It is important to intentionally counter act some of the stressors because the amount of stressors we face is absolutely detrimental to health. Stress can cause disease, it can block healing, and it can be really hard on your body. But, don't worry! Your body is resilient and it knows what to do. There are a lot of ways we can intentionally reduce stress on the body to help our bodies better manage the rest.
First, let’s define stress. Stress is anything that deviates the body from balance. Your body is always trying to maintain its natural balance. The body is doing its best to fight against all the odds stacked against it. This is called homeostasis. Any stressor pulls your body out of homeostasis and creates an involuntary response carried out by the nervous system and endocrine system, activating the sympathetic nervous system state. So anytime you face a stressor imagine your body fighting to get back to balance.
What are Stressors
Stressors can be accute or chronic, endodgenous or exogenous, distress or eustress. When we hear the word stress, most of us will think about mom life, work deadlines, emotional/mental/relational hardships. There are, however, many other kinds of stressors on the body...some of which we may have more control over than others:
accute viral infection
chronic viral infection (such as EBV, long-Cov!*, SIBO)
chronic fungal infections (candida, yeast, thrush)
gut dysbiosis
living in mold
air quality
excess blue light
5G & wifi & cellular towers
poor sleep
intermittent fasting
pregnancy
childbirth
toxic burden from food, cleaning products, personal care products
poor water quality
poor food quality
processed foods
immune system overreaction (asthma, skin conditions, allergies to pollen/dander/certain foods)
alcohol
skipping meals
coffee before breakfast
erratic blood sugar
excess sugar
cold plunging
sauna
inflammation
What Happens in the Face of a Stressor
When your body comes face to face with a stressor, the brain sends messages throughout the body to turn on certain functions for survival. These include the immediate release of epinephrine and norepinephrine (stress hormones produced by the ovaries) rising blood pressure and blood sugar to give energy to your brain, skeletal muscle, and heart. If the stressor continues for about 10 minutes, cortisol (stress hormone produced by the adrenals) will also be released. Cortisol prepares your body to sustain the stressor for longer. It increases alertness and vigilance, stimulates the release of glucose from other sources such as fats and proteins, suppresses inflammation, breaks down muscle tissue for amino acids, releases stored triglycerides, and more all to help you survive. The release of any of these stress hormones tells the body we are in survival mode- it activates any bodily process absolutely vital for survival, and turns everything else off. This is an intentional and protective design- your body is created to keep you alive!
The problem becomes when the stress never turns off. These protections were meant to be short term, and the body needs to come down and shift back into a parasympathetic mode (aka calm nervous system) every now and again. If you re-read the list of what happens in the face of a stressor and imagine it ongoing forever you can see how increased alertness leads to inability to wind down and sleep. Constant release of glucose and amino acids leads to muscle breakdown and inability to put on or keep on muscle as well as dysregulated blood sugar, insulin resistance, and type 2 diabetes. Suppressed inflammation will eventually burn out, find a new normal, and lead to a poor immune system. Tryglyceride release will create cholesterol imbalances. Stress hormones always on means sex hormones, detox, digestion, hair/skin/nail health, and more are always turned off and never prioritized.
This is why its so important to find ways to allow your body to relax in small pockets throughout each day. This is why undiscovered root cause health issues can create hormone imbalances and block your body's ability to heal. This is why we do what is in our power to decrease the stress load every day.
Nutrient & Energy Depletion During Stress
Stress is a very expensive process in the body. It is very taxing because it uses a lot of ATP (energy) as well as a lot of nutrients. Some nutrients that are depleted during times of prolonged stress:
Magnesium
Vitamin C
Calcium
Zinc
Selenium
Adaptation
Now, we all have that friend who can seemingly do it all without any apparent signs of distress. So the intricacies of how our bodies navigate stress might leave you wondering... Let’s talk about "allostasis," a brilliantly designed protective mechanism that allows the body to adapt, carrying the weight of stress without immediate symptoms. Essentially, our body adapts to the stress (for a time).
Allostasis is the body's knack for adaptation, a silent rearrangement of resources like energy and nutrients to combat stress effects.
It's not uncommon for individuals, especially moms, to feel fantastic initially as the body reallocates its resources to tackle stressors.
However, this is a delicate balancing act. While some may thrive for a while, continuously pushing the limits can lead to burnout. Burnout manifests uniquely for each individual and may include:
Loss of Energy
Weight gain or difficulty losing weight
Inability to gain muscle
Difficulty recovering after exertion
A deep sense of exhaustion
Thyroid and Adrenal Indicators
Autoimmune Conditions
Loss of feeling pleasure, joy, passion, or excitement (dopamine centers are numbed)
The sneaky nature of cortisol can mask these issues temporarily, creating a false sense of well-being. You are adapted and have become numb to the amount of cortisol in your blood. Your blood pressure rises, your heart rate increases, and this becomes your new baseline. Cortisol, in its role as a stress hormone, suppresses the immune system, breaks down muscles, causes ulcerations in the GI tract, and contributes to fatigue, body aches, pains, and blood sugar issues. Inflammation has to increase cholesterol to keep up with repairing damaged cells from the cortisol. Not only are your organs making a new normal, but you may mentally feel numbed out to the world as well- exciting things have lost luster, you go through the motions and make it through. When you stop and rest you may feel an increase in anxiety because of the addiction to the feeling of cortisol! Many women can bounce between the adaptation and burn-out phases multiple times.
